


Dark Paradise

by glaciya



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: :(, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Fluff, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mystery, Supernatural Elements, but its layered with sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 16:10:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21273983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glaciya/pseuds/glaciya
Summary: There's something strange going on with the people living in Wayne Manor.





	Dark Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all <3 This is the spooky jaytim au I've been talking about for the past couple weeks, finally finished! I had to cut quite a bit out from it to get to a point where I would actually finish it (pour one out for the angsty phone sex scene I had to delete. rip) but I still really like the way it turned out! I hope you all do too :D

There’s something strange going on with the people who occupy Wayne Manor. 

People is a loose word Jason uses to describe them because he isn’t entirely convinced that they are such. People are imperfect; they make mistakes, become ugly-both externally and internally-sometimes. Magazines like to pretend otherwise for the famous and the rich, but everyone knew better. Knew once all the makeup and photo-editing disappeared that underneath was another person just as imperfect and lost as the rest of them.

The Waynes though. The Waynes are perfect.

There’s Bruce, who never seems to age, donating to all the right charities and speaking all the right words. Dick, with his flirty banter and flawless maneuvers in whatever sport of the month has caught his attention. Stephanie, always the life of the party, pulling herself to the center of attention effortlessly and using her words to make those around her laugh and laugh and laugh. Cassandra, with her dance routines that are almost hypnotic to watch. Damian, known and respected for being so blunt and fearless even at his young age. 

They are adored by everyone. In most peoples’ eyes, they can do no wrong. They are gods among men. And no one besides Jason sees anything wrong with that. 

Jason scowls as he watches the live stream of the Waynes latest gala from his corner seat in Harper’s bar. It’s a slow night. There’s only a few other patrons besides Jason taking up the space of the dingy little bar. The bartender, Roy, busies himself with cleaning all the nooks and crannies of the bar counter and shelves underneath. 

Roy has to refill drinks occasionally and more than once, as he reaches for a glass on a low shelf, his sleeve slides off to reveal scratch marks Jason had put there with his nails the night before. It was a fun night, rough and casual. Something they both needed. It had been enough to sate both of them. Roy had winked at him when he first sat down for the night and hadn’t charged him for his first drink.

Jason’s third drink of the night has condensation dripping onto his fingers as he takes a pull, his eyes snapping from Roy back to the flatscreen above the bar as an applause sounds from the speakers. 

Bruce Wayne stands behind a podium, smiling indulgently as the crowd around him continues the applause way past the necessary length of time.

“Thank you, thank you.” He chuckles as one set of clapping outlasts the others. It falls flat to Jason’s ears. “I must confess that the new eco-friendly railways aren’t my only reason for celebrating tonight. I am happy to announce that Wayne Enterprises has a new CEO to take my place as I continue other endeavors.”

Excited murmurs come from the crowd as the main camera zooms in on a figure standing just behind Bruce Wayne, unnoticed until now. The glass creaks beneath his fingers as a vaguely familiar, smiling face comes into focus and Jason’s world begins to fall to pieces around him. 

“He may be young, but he’s the most competent man for the job,” Bruce says, gesturing behind him as the young man steps forward to the podium.

Jason can’t breathe.

“Hello,” the man says, cool and calm and beautiful. “My name is Timothy Drake.”

The glass shatters in Jason’s hand. 

* * *

Years before Jason sits in the bar watching the Waynes include Tim in their perfect little family, Jason sits in his freshman college class, fighting to stay awake as their professor plays a recent interview of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. She claimed it was so his class could study and analyze their mannerisms, but they’ve analyzed the Waynes enough by now that Jason is beginning to think she just has a thing for them… like everyone else in Gotham besides Jason. 

Most of his class sighs dreamily when Bruce and Dick share a laugh on screen and Jason can’t help the scowl that takes over this face. 

“What do you think? Aliens?” The voice comes from a boy sitting next to him. They’ve been sitting next to each other for most of the semester, but haven’t spoken to each other before. All Jason knows about him is that his name is Timothy Drake, he has an insanely large collection of Star Wars hoodies, and likes to sleep in class more often than not. He’s awake today and is twirling his pen between his fingers as he waits for Jason to respond. 

“Uh. What?”

“The Waynes. Aliens. Like-” he puts his knuckles against his forehead-almost jabbing himself in the eye with his pen in the process- and sticks both index fingers in the air and waggles them like he’s making antennas out of them. He makes a strange hissing noise to complete the impression, and Jason leans back as a speck of spit lands on the desk between them. 

“I know what aliens are,” he says, both horrified and amused. “I don’t know what they have to do with the Waynes though.”

Tim rolls his eyes. He’s twirling his pen between his fingers again and Jason finds it hard to look away from the pen’s path through Tim’s graceful fingers. “I’m sayin’ I think the Waynes are aliens. They have to be. No one is that perfect.”

Jason stares, speechless. He’s never met someone else that shared his thoughts about how strange the Waynes are before and now here’s this boy in front of him, with his bloodshot eyes and star wars hoodies and coffee smell, sharing the same suspicions Jason’s had since he first laid eyes on the Waynes. 

His surprise causes the silence to stretch too long and he sees Tim start to pull back. The pen stills in his hand and his expression shutters off, closed and uncaring. 

“Nevermind,” he mutters and crosses his arms on the desk, laying his forehead on him as if he’s planning on sleeping through the rest of the class. 

“Robots,” Jason blurts, wanting Tim’s eyes on him again. “Government made.”

Tim lifts his head and beams at him. 

* * *

Jason comes back to himself when a sharp pain laces through his hand. He lifts it up, watching in a dazed awe as alcohol and blood slide from the shallow cuts in his palm. Roy is next to him in an instant, cloth in his hand. 

“Maybe you oughta slow it down on the drinks,” he says with an easy smile on his face as he wraps Jason’s hand in the cloth with effient, gentle movements. 

“Better get that look off your face too,” a new voice drawls. 

Roy scowls at the sound and curious, Jason peers over his shoulder. He finds a man sitting at the bar that hadn’t been there when Jason was last aware. He’s wearing a suit too fancy for the usual crowd that hangs around in Harper’s bar and his brunette hair is styled perfectly with a layer of gel so thick Jason bets it would be hard to the touch. 

“What look?” Jason calls. He hisses when Roy ties the cloth off almost too tight. “I hope that’s not your bar rag,” he mutters in a lower voice to his friend. 

“Relax. I know what those hands of yours can do, I wouldn’t risk you getting an infection and losing one of them,” Roy murmurs. His lips twitch in amusement when Jason lightly kicks his shin. 

A shadow appears over them as the man comes around the table and stands behind the booth across from Jason’s. “Bring us two more of whatever he just spilled, would you?” his asks. The question comes out sounding more of a demand than anything, the man’s voice too cold to hold any sincere politeness in it. 

Roy nods, taking out another rag and making quick work of the mess Jason made before he leaves in a hurry. Jason frowns as he watches him go. He hasn’t known Roy long, but he’s never been anything less than the witty man with a mischievous smiles and all kinds of stories to tell. It’s strange to see him act so meek.

“Roman Sionis,” the man says, drawing Jason’s attention back to him. Only when Jason sees his gloved hand held out does he realize it’s an introduction. 

“Jason Todd.” Jason shakes with his uninjured hand and pulls back from Roman quickly. “What look?”

“The look that tells in entire world that you despise the Waynes,” Roman says, throwing his arm over the back of the booth and slouching back in his seat. “That makes you stick out from the crowd of their adoring fans in Gotham and trust me when I say that you do not want to stick out from the crowd. Not when it comes to them.”

Jason jerks when he feels Roman’s legs press against his and tries to pull away, but there’s nowhere to go, not with two tall men in a tiny corner booth and with Roman taking up more room than he should. 

“I don’t despise them. I don’t know them.” 

Roman points a finger at him. “Liar. You know enough to hate them,which means you know more of them than most people.”

Jason feels cold and hot all over. He finds himself leaning forward, closer to Roman’s smug face than he would have cared for moments ago. “What do you know of the Waynes?”

Roman hums, drumming his fingers against the table. “Tell me why you hate them so much first. Then I’ll consider telling you what I know.”

“They…” Jason trails off when the memory of the way Tim would laugh, loud-too loud sometimes, depending on the situation- with little hiccups at the end of something really tickled him. He can see Tim with a vivid clarity, the way his face would go all red and his whole body would shake, giggling still as he wipes tears from his eyes. Jason lived for the moments when he’d be the one to cause that laugh. “They took something from me.”

Roman’s eyes go wide and sympathetic. “Oh you poor thing.” He reaches across and lays a gloved hand over Jason’s injured one. He watches Jason a moment before he seems to come to a conclusion. His grip tightens, just enough for Jason to feel his wound begin to sting again and says, “I can’t promise that what you lost will be returned to you, but what if I could show you how to take revenge on the Waynes for what they did?”

Roy returns with their drinks then, frowning when he sees Jason’s hand in Roman’s. He doesn’t say anything but as he turns to leave he catches Jason’s eye, and in that look exchanges a silent warning with Jason.

But it’s too late. Jason’s a bull and Roman’s just waved a muleta right in front of his face. All he sees is red. 

* * *

“We should hang out,” Tim says one day. They’re in their regular seats in class, sharing notes so they have proper studying materials for their quiz in three days. Or rather, Jason is sharing his notes from the classes Tim slept through. He doesn’t mind though. It’s fascinating to watch Tim’s writing switch between cursive or print depending on his mood. 

“We are hanging out,” he says when Tim stops writing to shoot him an exasperated look.

Tim rolls his eyes. “I mean hang out, hang out. Somewhere where we can have a full conversation without Mrs. Smith giving us a nasty looks all the time.”

Jason sneaks a peek over at their teachers desk and sure enough, Mrs. Smith is looking right back at him. Nastily. He returns his attention to Tim. “Okay.” 

“Really?” Tim puts too much pressure on his pen and pokes a hole through his paper mid sentence. He curses quietly to himself before he continues the sentence a little ways down the page. 

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever you want.” 

“Cool. Maybe at one of our houses?”

“Not my place,” Jason is quick to say. “It’s…” He trails off, thinking of the tiny studio he called home. It’s clean, because that’s one of the few things wrong with it that Jason can control, but it’s thin, brown carpets and leaky ceilings make it not much to look at. 

“That’s okay. We can hang out at my place. My parents are out of town this weekend,” Tim says and flushes at the same time that Jason begins to feel overly warm. “Oh frick. That is not what I meant. Unless you- No shut up, Tim- we’ll just...whatever.”

“Yeah,” Jason agrees and rests his chin in his palm, content to watch Tim copy his notes for the rest of his class.

* * *

He goes to Tim’s house and promptly feels entirely out of place when he realizes just how rich Tim actually is. Everything is large and shiny and Jason feels like if he touches anything he might leave a smudge behind. That is, until he reaches Tim’s room and finds out what a disaster it is.

“Is that a shrine of the Waynes?” he asks, staring at a corner of Tim’s room where several photos of Bruce and Dick cut out from various magazines are taped together, connected with a spiderweb of red string. 

“It’s not a shrine.” Tim sounds offended. “It’s my research. I have some more theories I wanted to share with you.”

“That’s why you invited me over,” Jason concludes. He’s disappointed and doesn’t understand why. 

“Yeah. Unless you wanted to do something else?” Tim seems uncertain now. Nervous. He keeps tugging on the bottom of his baggy Star Wars hoodie and he’s staring at Jason with a sharp intensity in his pretty blue eyes. 

_ I wanna kiss you _ . The thought comes to him, sudden and devastating, and Jason’s world shatters around him in the face of it. “That sounds fun to me.” Jason smiles at Tim, not wanting him to pick up on the epiphany Jason hasn’t managed to grab ahold of yet. 

Tim smiles back at him and Jason knows he’s screwed. 

* * *

_ Vampires. _

Roman’s voice sort of fades out once he’s finally showed Jason what he had been hiding in the shack behind his house for all the weeks that Jason has known him. One word sticks though. 

Vampires.

It’s a young woman. Or, something that looks almost like a young woman, minus the glowing red eyes and sharp teeth. She’s chained to the back wall of the shack, with shackles on her neck and both wrists and ankles. She’s wearing dirty pajamas and her hair is dark and tangled. Her skin is pale, veins practically glowing beneath it as she snaps and snarls at them.

“- true form comes out with starvation,” Roman is saying. “I’ve had this one down here for two months now. She stopped begging to be let go after the third week and has been growling ever since.” Roman laughs. Jason doesn’t understand what he finds funny. 

“Why have you kept her here for so long?” Jason wonders. He wants to turn and run back to bed and pretend this day never happened.

“For you,” Roman says. He laughs again, quieter this time, when Jason turns to stare at him. “You’re a smart lad, Jason. I knew you wouldn’t believe me if I just told you about the Waynes little secret. You would need facts, proof that I wasn’t lying to you. So here she is: your proof.”

“I don’t understand what this has to do with the Waynes.”

“Yes, you do.”

The woman is drooling now, reaching out for him with long thin fingers. The Waynes are...Tim is- No no no no no-

“Kill her.”

Everything stills. “What?” Jason’s voice is a whisper. 

“Kill her.” Roman grunts, impatient as he pulls out a gun and forces it into Jason’s hand. “If you’re going to one of mine I need to know if you have what it takes. You’ve got your wits and your hate, but you’ve also got a soft look to you, boy. And soft gets you killed.”

Jason stares at the gun in his hand, stares at the woman still snarling and reaching for him, stares at Roman. “I don’t…”

“This is how you’ll get your revenge on the Waynes for taking from you.”

Jason raises the gun. He points it at the woman, sight on the center of her forehead. He flicks the safety off. Puts his finger on the trigger and he-

He sees Tim. Red eyed and snarling at him, chains rattling as he tries to get to Jason. 

“I can’t do it.” Jason lowers the gun, letting it rest next to his hip. “Sorry.”

Roman sighs, and Jason catches a frown on his face as he turns away from him, walking toward the door out of the shack. Jason spares another glance toward the woman before he begins to follow Roman. 

He only makes it a few steps before Roman faces him again. There’s a dagger in his hand. “I’d hoped it wouldn’t come to this,” he says. 

“Come to what?” Jason asks dumbly. He eyes the dagger in Roman’s hand. It makes him nervous. 

His unease is proven right when Roman lifts the blade and swipes it across Jason’s cheek. The blade is so sharp and Roman’s movements so fast that the pain registers only after Jason feels blood, warm and thick begin to drift down his face. 

“What the fuck-” Jason stumbles back. The gun is still in his hand but he never thinks to raise it. 

He raises his other hand though, swiping at the blood on his cheek and inspecting his red palm bewilderedly. When he looks back up, Roman is already standing at the door, fingers on a red button in a panel beside the door. 

“I’m sorry about this,” he’s saying. “But I need you to understand.”

“Understand what?” Jason moves toward Roman, dread pooling in his stomach when Roman’s fingers press the button and he hears the sound of chains falling to the floor behind him. Roman leaves the room, slamming the door behind him and abandons Jason in a pitch black room with a bloody face and a starving vampire at his back. 

She’s free to grab him now that the chains are off. Jason’s gun is still in his hand. 

* * *

Roman unlocks the door after what feels like hours have passed. Jason is standing in the middle of the room. He’s wet and red all over. 

Roman looks around the room, inspecting the mess with an interested hum. “There you are. I knew you could do it.” He drapes an arm over Jason’s shaking shoulders and pulls him from the room where he made his first kill.

* * *

Later that night, Jason tosses and turns in his bed, unable to close his eyes without seeing the woman’s bloody body on the floor of Roman’s shack.

It’s around midnight when he finally gives up on the task, fumbling with his phone and squinting at it until he finds Tim’s name in his contact. He takes a breath and presses the call button. 

It goes to voicemail. 

He calls again.

It goes to voicemail. 

He calls again. 

It goes to-

It doesn’t go to voicemail. The ringing just stops altogether. Jason pulls the phone away from his ear long enough to confirm that the call is still going through. 

“Tim?” Jason croaks.

Silence. But the call hasn’t disconnected. Someone is still there. 

“I keep seeing you on the news and in magazines. Everyone’s talking about you, wondering where you came from and what you did to draw Bruce Wayne’s attention in so quickly. It’s like you’re everywhere.”  _ Everywhere except with me. _ “But it’s not really you, is it? Not anymore.”

Silence.

“I know what you are,” Jason continues. “I know what they did to you.”

He thinks he hears something then, a breath maybe, but he can’t be sure. He can still feel the woman’s breath on the back of his neck, feel her blood dripping down his skin. 

“Why did you leave? What could they have offered you that you didn’t already have? You had everything. You had me!”

“ _ Jason _ .”

Jason sucks in a sharp breath. It’s different, deeper, smoother, but it’s Tim. A gentle beep makes him jump, heart leaping into his throat. He checks the screen again and finds the call disconnected.

* * *

“Just wait, okay?” Jason says into the phone. “Please just wait.”

“I can’t,” Tim replies, his voice desperate, urging Jason to understand. He can hear thunder through Tim’s end. Moments later lightning flashes outside his window. “I have to find out what’s in that cave and the only time they all leave the manor is during the full moon.If I don’t do it now then I’ll have to wait another month to finally figure out what’s inside. Jason, I have to do this.”

“But I can’t get to you right now,” Jason cries. Even if he could leave his mother alone- which he wouldn’t, not when she’s so sick- it would take him hours to reach the other side of the city with the terrible weather outside. His mom coughs and the lights flicker with a strong gust of wind as if reminding Jason of why he’s stuck. “There will be another full moon and we can find out their secrets together. Please Tim.”

There’s a pause before Tim finally sighs and says, “Okay.”

Jason slumps, sliding down the wall in his studio apartment and resting his forehead on his knees. “Okay? Really?”

“Yeah, Jason. Really.” 

“We’ll go to the cave together next month. Promise.” Jason smiles and thinks about how much he wants to kiss Tim. 

“Well, I guess if I’m ever going to make it back home in this weather I’d better get going,” Tim says. His voice sounds strange, but Jason assumes it’s because he’s disappointed. That’s okay. He’ll be safe and that’s all that matters. “Have a good night, Jason. I’ll see you in class.”

Jason’s mother dies three hours later. He tries to call Tim but the call doesn’t connect. He doesn’t see Tim again until two years later, when he’s sitting in Harper’s bar trying to have a drink and scowling at the interview of Bruce Wayne playing on the television hanging up over the bar. 

* * *

“I think I know a way to get into the manor. A secret entrance,” Jason tells Roman after another successful hunt. It’s been six months since Roman approached him in the bar, five since Jason made his first kill and the phone call to Tim, and four since he began taking jobs for Roman. There were more vampires roaming the streets of Gotham that Jason wanted to know about. He wondered if Tim knew any of them, then told himself he shouldn’t care.

“And how do you know of this?” 

“Research.” Jason shrugs, keeping his face neutral as Roman scrutinizes him. 

“Where is it,” Roman finally asks, eyes narrowed. 

* * *

The cave is larger than the tiny, hidden entrance in the middle of a small patch of woods a mile away from Wayne Manor suggests. It’s furnished, and Jason finds himself strangely disappointed to see one of the walls lined with regular beds instead of coffins. There’s what looks to be a makeshift infirmary near the beds and several fancy cars that Jason hasn’t ever seen any of them drive. 

There’s computers lining one side of the cave, monitors glowing a soft blue. Jason walks over to it and finds that each screen is hosting a picture and tiny bio of a different person. The blood type is highlighted and in bold print on each one. 

“You’re not supposed to be here.”

Jason whirls, drawing his gun. Tim stands behind him, looking down the barrel of Jaso’s gun with blank indifference. He doesn’t even bother pulling his hands out of his pants pockets to try to defend himself.

He’s dressed in a black suit without a jacket. His feet are bare, the top two buttons of his red dress shirt are unbuttoned and he has the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing tiny bits of his pale skin for Jason’s eyes to latch on to. 

“Oh yeah? Because I’m pretty sure this is exactly where I’m supposed to be.” He has a clear shot. Why isn’t he shooting?

“And why is that?” Tim cocks his head in an eerily graceful move. A stray strand of his black hair falls onto his cheek and Jason longs to brush it away. “Are you going to kill me, Jason?”

Jason scoffs and lowers his gun. “Why did you do it? Why did you leave? We promised.”

“You promised. I didn’t.”

“Oh right. Because you lying to me makes it better.”

“I had to do it. I had to know. I couldn’t wait a second longer.” Tim still is hardly moving and Jason hates how much he’s almost like the Tim he used to know. But it’s not the same. It’s not enough. 

“So you found out what they were and you what? Just decided you wanted to be one too?”

“Bruce offered me a home. Dick offered me a family. They offered me a purpose, power.”

“Why? As a reward for you finding out their secret?”

“That was part of it, I’m sure,” Tim’s lips quirk in the ghost of a smile. “Bruce also has a soft spot for lost souls. You know I never really fit in with the life I lived. I hated college and my parents, even before they passed, they were never around. Bruce knew I was a safe bet because I had no one that loved me, no one to miss me.”

“I loved you,” Jason says, it’s shaky and rough coming out. “I missed you every goddamn day you were gone.”

Tim’s face twists and- oh. Roman had told him over and over again that vampires didn’t feel a thing except hunger, but the look the Tim’s giving him now is filled with such grief that Jason nearly stumbles in the face of it. 

He sees them then. The rest of the hunters with Roman in front. They were supposed to wait for Jason’s signal but they must have gotten impatient and now several of them have their guns pointed at Tim’s back. He knows they won’t hesitate like he did. 

This time though, this time Jason moves without a second thought, grabbing Tim and pulling him behind him as gunshots begin to echo throughout the cave. He knows he’s being shot, but it’s different, put in the background now that he’s finally able to look at and touch Tim again. 

He lifts a hand up. It’s shaking as he brushes Tim’s hair behind his ear. Tim’s face is still broken so Jason tries to smile but blood begins to pour out of his mouth and he starts to choke on it. The world fades away from him and the last thing he sees is Tim’s face twisting again, this time in fury. 

His world goes black, but Jason stays conscious enough to hear Tim’s roar and the sound of the hunters screaming soon after. 

* * *

When Jason comes to he’s relaxed with a warm light feeling sitting in his chest, almost like he’s floating on the inside. The thought has him smiling. 

“What’s so funny?” That’s Tim’s voice. His Tim. 

Jason opens his eyes and finds that he’s in an unfamiliar bedroom with Tim lying on top of the sheets next to him. He tries to look around but his eyesight is being weird. The lights are off but Jason can see everything with a near intense clarity. He can hear things too. Someone on a lower level stirring a spoon in a glass mug, two people on the same level as him talking too fast for him to make out any of the words, a flap of wings from somewhere high above. 

When it starts to get overwhelming Jason focuses on Tim instead, smiling wider when he sees him wearing one of his old Star Wars hoodies. 

“Nothing’s funny,” he says remembering Tim’s question. Talking makes him suddenly aware of a dull burning in the back of his throat. It’s not comfortable, but not bad enough that he can’t speak so he ignores that as well. “I’m just really happy.”

Tim’s eyes are bright as he returns Jason’s smile. “Oh yeah? And why is that?”

“Because you’re here and I’m here.” Jason remembers the sound of gunshots and frowns. “And we’re both safe.”

Tim reaches up and touches Jason’s cheek, rubbing a thumb over his lips when Jason leans into it. “I’m sorry I left you.”

Jason has the sudden urge to kiss him then so he does. Tim makes a surprised noise when Jason leans over him suddenly, but he sighs as soon as their lips press together. He keeps it chaste, gentle for their first kiss. When he pulls back he licks his lips and says, “Don’t do it again.”

Tim kisses him again, this time with heat and tongues and teeth. “I won’t,” he says when they part. His eyes bleed red. “Never again.”

Jason feels a pulse behind his eyes and knows his own eyes are flaring red in response. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you liked this, feel free to leave a comment and/or a kudos!   
You can also find me screaming about fandom stuff at   
[Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/glaciya) and [Twitter!](https://twitter.com/glaciiya)


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